PC won't boot

[thestrangebrew1]

I'm working on the following PC: Acer AX3960-U4102 Desktop and when trying to boot, I get the following errors:

PXE-E61 - Media Test Failure. Test Cable
PXEM0F - Exiting Intel Boot Agent

When I try to change boot device priority I have 5 options:
1st boot device - set to CDROM
2nd boot device - set to HDD
3rd boot - EFI
4th- Removable disk
5th-Network card

Now when I go into each device priority to select the device I want to boot with, for CDROM I see the CDROM drive, and for the network card I see the network card, but for HDD there is nothing listed. Like wise for EFI & removable (which would make sense). I'm thinking BIOS isn't seeing the HDD. I've plugged and unplugged the HDD from the mobo several times and tried switching sata ports as well but no go. Is this HDD dead/dying?

 

[denis280]

Can you feel the Hdd working.and do the led come on

 

[stinger608]

It could be the hard drive. Pull the SATA cable and change with a different cable to rule that out.
If it still doesn't boot, go into the bios and see if it sees the hard drive.

Do you have an extra hard drive laying around? If so plug it in and go into the bios to see if it sees the second hard drive.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I swapped cables a few times and finally got it to work after 3 different cables. I guess it's what I get for having the cheapos off ebay laying around. BIOS sees the HDD now so I'm going to leave it running for a few hours to make sure it doesn't crash. If it happens again I guess I can assume its the HDD so I'll swap it out and see if BIOS recognizes the new one. Thanks gents!

 

[stinger608]

Well I have to believe it was the cable. Unless something is amiss in the bios.

 

[ethmcc93]

Have you got access to the bios if so check the settings maybe you might have disabled primary and secondary master if parallel ata